Kimball Forum
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions

4 posters

Go down

Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions Empty Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions

Post  rajsdwh Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:22 am


We have three tables X, Y, Z. The table structure are the same, but the data is different. These tables are linked by a KEY column. The tables have multiple date fileds DATE_FIELD1, DATE_FIELD2, DATE_FIELD3, DATE_FIELD4. The values in these dates are different. My question is, whether these date columns will be in FACT or DIMENSION tables. Please suggest.

Raj

rajsdwh

Posts : 1
Join date : 2012-04-06

Back to top Go down

Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions Empty Re: Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions

Post  BoxesAndLines Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:46 am

Simply stating metadata about columns does not provide any insight as to the correct model. This is true for OLTP modeling as well as dimensional modeling. Now if you talked about the definition of these columns, how they are used by the business, or even performance measures, I might be able to help.
BoxesAndLines
BoxesAndLines

Posts : 1212
Join date : 2009-02-03
Location : USA

Back to top Go down

Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions Empty Re: Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions

Post  Vishy Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:34 am

If table structures are same means referring to same business process. You can now start finding dimensions from these tables and also create a detail time dimension which can be used multiple times (role playing) if you have multiple dates for a business transaction.

Vishy

Posts : 75
Join date : 2012-02-28
Location : India

Back to top Go down

Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions Empty Re: Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions

Post  ngalemmo Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:18 pm

It boils down to what do the dates mean and which entity they belong to. If the dates related to the dimension, thats where they should go. If they relate to a business event, they belong in the fact. You use FKs to the date dimension if the date needs that context (i.e. the attributes for date). Things like effective dates in a dimension usually are just date columns.
ngalemmo
ngalemmo

Posts : 3000
Join date : 2009-05-15
Location : Los Angeles

http://aginity.com

Back to top Go down

Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions Empty Re: Date Columns in FACT or Dimensions

Post  Sponsored content


Sponsored content


Back to top Go down

Back to top

- Similar topics

 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum